Global finance: Lifelines

A special section on the crisis looks at prospects for the global economy, individual countries and markets. It begins with the tricky job of saving the financial system THIS was the week when governments and central banks around the world finally began to face up to the scale of their problems. As they did so, conventions toppled almost as fast as the banks they were trying to save. On October 8th six central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and, notably, the hawkish European Central Bank, took the unprecedented step of announcing co-ordinated cuts in lending rates, with most trimming by half a percentage point. As European governments scrambled to shore up confidence, the ECB further upped the ante, saying it will offer banks as much cash as they want at its benchmark interest rate from October 15th. On October 7th America’s Federal Reserve lent unsecured to companies for the first time in its history and, a day later Britain unveiled the most ambitious effort yet ... (link)